"The Unending Battle for the Upper West Side"

 

 

Here's fascinating article in City Journal about the recent history of the Upper West Side. Social services agencies have moved mentally ill people into the area, to the dismay of local residents.

A “fair share” law in the city charter requires social-services facilities to be evenly distributed through all neighborhoods, but West 94th and 95th Streets alone have seen half a dozen similar institutions proposed in recent years, from homeless shelters to drug-treatment centers to halfway houses. In 2008, Neighborhood in the Nineties released a study of data from the Supportive Housing Network confirming what the residents of the Upper West Side had long suspected: a full 21 percent of the supportive-housing units in Manhattan—1,978 units—were located on the Upper West Side. On the Upper East Side, by comparison, there were 93 units.

G and I had a long walk around the area last weekend. It is very attractive on a late summer day, and visibly more prosperous than it was ten years ago.